Amlwch

Harbour Pies and Copper-era Pubs

The Adelphi Vaults sits down at Amlwch Port, a small free house in the old harbour, and it does homemade pies on mashed potato with minted mushy peas and gravy. Some reviewers rate them among the best pies they've had. There are up to four rotating Welsh real ales including Purple Moose, and an elderflower ale that people keep ordering. Dogs are welcome.

Up in the town centre the Kings Head Hotel has been on Salem Street since the 18th century, when it served the copper trade. One reviewer singled out the cod. The beer garden was recently done up, and staff have been known to offer blankets on chilly evenings and mark a birthday if they know it's yours. The Dinorben Arms, a listed building nearby, has been at the centre of Amlwch life since at least 1784, when it doubled as a courthouse — the rock-hewn cellar is said to have held the cells.

Town Life and Two Churches

The town works. There's a SPAR and a Co-op, a bakery called Becws Mefus turning out fresh bread daily, and independent shops along the main street. Amlwch is strongly Welsh-speaking, and signs come bilingual: Mynydd Parys, Porth Llechog, Y Deyrnas Gopr.

Then there is the church that looks like a boat. Our Lady Star of the Sea and St Winefride was built in 1937 by an Italian architect, Giuseppe Rinvolucri, in the shape of an upturned hull, with porthole windows near the base and concrete ribs arching overhead. Three narrow strips of clear and blue glass run its length and glow after dark. It closed in 2004 as the concrete deteriorated and reopened, restored, in 2011. St Eleth's, the parish church up in town, is a plain 1800 Neo-classical building with two bells, one of them dated 1687.

Parys Mountain and the Copper Trade

A mile inland is the reason all of this exists. Parys Mountain is a spread of open copper workings in orange, red, brown, yellow and purple rock, where the ground is contaminated enough that plants haven't come back. Visitors call it moon-like, and they're not straining for it. Waymarked trails run about 3.5 to 4.5 km on gravel, with free parking. In the 1780s this was the largest copper mine in Europe and set the world price. Copper from here sheathed the hulls of Royal Navy warships, HMS Victory among them, and in 2005 the local heritage trust bought five sheets stripped from the Victory for a hundred pounds each.

The Coastal Path and Point Lynas

The Anglesey Coastal Path passes through, part of the wider Wales Coast Path. West it reaches Porth Wen and its abandoned brickworks — tall chimneys and beehive kilns — then Bull Bay, the most northerly village in Wales, and on toward Cemaes. From Point Lynas, on a clear day, you can see Ireland, the Isle of Man and the Lake District, with seals and porpoises offshore.

Arriving, Railways and Amlwch Lives

There's no station; the branch line lost its passengers in 1964 and a group still campaigns to bring it back. You reach the town on the A5025, or by one of the buses that stop at the Recreation Grounds. Andy Whitfield, who played the lead in Spartacus, was born here. Lemmy of Motörhead went to school here and got the nickname, so the story goes, from asking to "lemmy a quid 'til Friday."